By Joel Croteau on Monday, November 23, 1998 - 05:03 pm:

It seems to me the defense for the Picard manuver is simple. Fire at the closest ship. Would the sensors be fooled by the Picard manuver? It seems doubtful.
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By N.L.A. on Monday, November 23, 1998 - 10:47 pm:

If anyone has the revised and updated version of the Star Trek Encylopedia, look at the preview for this episode. The special effects guys didn't fill in the bluescreen on the Stargazer bridge viewscreen at the point where Picard destroys Bok's mind control device.
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By Chris Thomas on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 03:53 am:

Doesn't the Picard manoeuvre indicate for a second or so there are two ships actually in existence? So rather than one being a ghost, there are two actual ships, which surely would confuse the sensors?
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By Hans Thielman on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 12:56 pm:

What good did the Picard maneuver do? The crew still had to abandon ship, and Picard was court-martialed (Refer to "The Measure of a Man"). Why didn't Picard order the Stargazer to auto-destruct?

Other then being court-martialed, what exactly did Picard do between commanding the Stargazer and assuming command of the Enterprise D?
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By D.K. Henderson on Saturday, November 28, 1998 - 07:59 am:

I read that Picard's habit of standing up and then tugging his uniform down has also come to be referred to as "The Picard Manuver!"
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By Edward Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Saturday, November 28, 1998 - 12:55 pm:

The Ferengi sensors are fooled because they are sublight speed sensors.
There are not two ships, there are a ship and a sensor ghost.
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By Chris Thomas on Saturday, November 28, 1998 - 11:47 pm:

D.K.: You're right, there's actually a book called The New Trek Programmed Guide which lists every time Picard does this to his uniform. It also lists when other crew members do the Picard manoeuvre, usually when in command.
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By D.K. Henderson on Tuesday, March 2, 1999 - 07:35 am:

Saw this episode again the other day. I noticed that when the DaiMon (sp) got Picard to the Stargazer, he had Picard raise the shields, and THEN he beamed off the ship. Since when can people beam through shields?

I saw that someone commented on what use the Picard Manuver had been, since he lost the ship anyway. It bought them some time, and enabled them to destroy the enemy ship. Picard may have lost his ship, but not his crew.
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By Chris Thomas on Friday, April 2, 1999 - 07:46 pm:

D.K.: I thought exactly the same thing. Picard raises the shields and the Enterprise says they can't get him. Then Bok beams off the Stargazer. Then, at the end, when Picard's mind is free he is beamed off as well - but at no point are we given any indication he dropped the shields so this could happen.
Also when Riker is talking to the Ferengi first officer, they both refer to Bok as captain. Riker could slip up I guess but surely this Ferengi would only call him Daimon, given that is how is referred to for the rest of the episode by the Ferengi.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 08:17 am:

Data says, "Time, sir." and Picard has to think about what Data could mean. Shouldn't Data be a bit more precise in what he means? We've seen him bore the crew by calculating arrival time down to the second, he has gone off on tangents when giving explanations and he has stated things that are obvious. Would it be that much harder for him to say, "It is time for the Ferengi to beam over, sir."

So why would an Acting Ensign be allowed to play around with the long range sensors?

Picard tells Wesley that proper procedure would have been to notify the Bridge from Engineering instead of personally bringing the information. So why don't the long range sensors automatically inform the Bridge that something has been detected? Or was that feature disabled while Wes played around with the long range sensors?

Bok is using a "Thought Maker" on Picard. To be effective this device must be broadcasting at or around the wavelengths of Picard's thoughts. If a machine can be developed to transmit on the frequency of thoughts it would be even easier to build a device to block the transmission of thoughts. Therefore Data will be incorrect in Night Terrors when he states that there is no known technology for blocking telepathy.

It looked like Picard's model of the Stargazer in his Ready Room was replaced by a model of the Constitution class Enterprise.

I am no physicist, so I cite the musings and brief calculations of a scientific friend of mine in Chester. He said that the effect of blasting into high warp then stopping right off the enemy's bow would not appear to a ship with sub-light sensors as a far and near perspective of the attacking ship. Rather, the enemy would see the far away ship blasting forwards and backwards leaving a trail of ghost images for every point it passed through. Very difficult to simulate on TV, and a little hard to grasp, but...
Then again, I wonder why Picard finished up saying, "...and the enemy vessel fired on the wrong one." Given that the Picard Maneouvre confuses the enemy whilst affording the opportunity to destroy them quickly, it seems hard to believe that the Ferengi would have had time to "fire on the wrong one." (A point reinforced somewhat by the Encyclopedia, I should add.)

When two images of the ship appear, can't the enemy fire on both at the same time?

The hallway that goes to the bridge looks like the inside of the turbolifts of the original Enterprise. Since they did reuse the set from the Star Trek movies why didn't they change the walls to look like the hallways in the other areas of the ship?

One thing that spoiled this episode for me was the ridiculous labeling of the Stargazer stations, ie, 'helm', 'nav'. Why would such stations be listed as such? Are the crew such idiots that they don't know from their Starfleet training where their post is?
The Stargazer looks like it's been in a fight, but not enough to abandon ship. The Constellation from TOS looked much worse off.
The special effects guys should also have made the Stargazer much smaller while it's being towed,
since it clearly shouldn't be anywhere near Enterprise-D's size.
It does make you stop and think what Starfleet thinks of Picard; he loses the Stargazer and gets court-martialed (but exonerated), and then a few years later is given command of a state-of-the-art super-ship like the Enterpsie; years later, he loses that ship, too, doesn't get court-martialed, and then is handed an even bigger, state-of-the-art super-ship like the Enterprise-E.

How do we know Picard wasn't court-martialled for loosing the Enterprise-D?

I heard somewhere that it is standard procedure for a court-martial to be held when a ship is lost, regardless of whether the Captain is expected to be convicted or not.

I thought it was a Board of Inquiry, not a Court-Martial.

I think I read 'court-martial' in the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
Another nit;
Beverly seems surprised that Picard has a 'headache'. She tells him that she knows what one is, but they're rare since the brain has been mapped so extensively. So what? Loud noise, bright lights, any number of things can cause a headache suddenly, so unless everyone is medicated for headache pain when there is no pain to deal with, everyone should get them once in a while. That's like saying because certain parts of the body have been charted that nobody hiccups or farts any more, when they're involuntary biological functions that'll occur throughout ones lifetime.

Yes, Picard was most likely court-marshalled, but was exonorated.

I thought the ending wasn't very well written...Bok was arrested for doing something that wasn't very profitable (?)

It sounds a bit flaky.

I think Bok should have SURRENDERED after Picard destroyed the mind controlling device and then arrested.

Listen to the transporter sound effect when Crusher and Picard beam to the Stargazer the first time - it's way off!

I don't understand how the Picard Maneuver would confuse the enemy, unless the ship moved back and forth between the two positions.

Mike, it has to do with how fast light travels from the origin to its destination.

The ship moved fast enough that the light (the image of it) from its previous position was still transmitting to the Ferengi ship, and the image of it in its new position was being transmitted.

Picard orders Dr. Crusher to return to her duty station when she encounters him in his ready room.
Later, after Wesley informs Troi and Crusher about the brainwave transmission patterns he has detected, Crusher and Troi approach Riker on the bridge. When they ask about Picard's location, Riker responds that Picard is resting in his quarters, "after ordering both of you to return to your duty stations". I guess Troi was guilty by association, since she was not present when Picard gave that order. Those present were Riker, LaForge, Data, and Dr. Crusher.

This episode reminds me a little like "Dagger of the Mind" (TOS) There are SOME simularities.

How come the Counselor Troi can all of a sudden: "Sence considerable deception on Bok's part...and danger".

Whats up with that, just before that in "The Last Outpost" Deanna couldn't get anything from the Ferengi at all.

Am I wrong here?

No, it's a changed premice, for then on (for the most part at least) Ferangi were unreable by betazoids, until 'the price' that is.

Just why are the words "HELM" and "NAV" emblazened on the Stargazer console? Does Starfleet think that its personel are so dumb that they don't know where their stations are?

I must say too that the Stargazer Bridge looks A LOT like the Enterprise-refit Bridge from the movies.

OOOOPS, Sorry about the "Helm" / "Nav" thing. I just saw that Will posted that earlier. Sorry, Will. I got lazy & forgot to check to see if someone else posted that nit.

I think by "sense", they can still read by facial expressions.

Also regarding Picard's court-martial, is it when a ship is lost like the Stargazer or destroyed like the Enterprise-D?

Seems like a valid difference. Otherwise, plenty of ships captains would be court-martialled during the Dominion War. Seems like lost is a much better explanation, which would mean that Picard may not have necessarily been court-martialled after "Generations"

But then I guess in wartime, ships are expected to be lost...unless there was negligence...a whole other issue

Like the case of the honsu? The middle of a and a ship carrying ••• Dukat is travelling alone by the border? I mean what was the captain thinking?

On the topic of captains being hauled up before a court-martial whenever a ship is lost, I have two small points. First, someone mentioned that when a ship is lost, Starfleet holds a court-martial instead of a board of inquiry. However, by the 24th Century, they may have eliminated boards of inquiry and go straight to the court-martial. Of course, it is possible the board of inquiry that investigated the Stargazer's abandonment found sufficient evidence for a court-martial, since Picard's story probably sounds a bit flimsy on the surface. Second, somone asked, if Starfleet always tries captains whenever a ship is lost, wouldn't that lead to a lot of trials in time of war? Well, I imagine a lot of captains go down with their ships in fleet-to-fleet combat (we see a lot of no-name ships blow up on DS9). Also, it's possible they mean that is procedure in peacetime. Of course, that, like some other things in this episode, could be phrased better. Finally, it is odd that Picard got the Enterprise after a court-martial. It seems to me, such a thing would taint his career, losing the ship he commanded for 20 years suddenly, and being court-martialed for it. While officially cleared, don't these things usually hurt an officer's career advancement? However, Picard seems to pal around the admirals a lot, and that probably saved him.

Aghhhh, it's a DaiMon nightmare! Frank Corsentino, the original actor to play Bok, doesn't play Bok again in "Bloodlines" (that would be Lee Arenberg), but he does play DaiMon Tog in "Menage a Troi." Arenberg actually plays DaiMon Prak in "Force of Nature."

Robert Towers (Rata) has the distinction of being in my favorite movie as a kid, "Masters of the Universe," as the villainous Karg, who is actually somewhat similar to a Ferengi.

At one point we see Dr. Crusher put a device on Picard's forehead, presumably to help him sleep. The only thing is, this device makes some odd beeping noises, which would seem to counteract its usefulness as a sleep aid.

Why do people list all the ways around the Picard Maneuver when it shouldn't work against the Enterprise in the first place?

As has been noted above in a few places the Ferrengi ship was using light-speed sensors. (I'm assuming that the ship had been damaged during the battle). The important thing here is why would the Enterprise also be limited to light-speed sensors?

The ship has always been able to detect an uncloaked ship travelling at warp speed in real time, and the only way they could tell that is if they have sensors that are at least as fast as the ship they are detecting. Further, considering that Starships travel several times the speed of light they would need to be able to see what is ahead of them before they hit it. In the case of the Enterprise D it is reasonable to assume they have sensors that are significantly faster than the ship can travel - At this point in the series the Enterprise can manage warp 9.6 as a cruising speed, and manage to reach warp 9.9 with an effort. At no point when the ship is going this fast does anyone bring up the possibility that they might run into something before they see it.
The sensors on the Enterprise, or at least some of them, MUST be able to work a lot faster than the ship is capable of travelling - I'd assume the sensors work at the same speed as sub-space communications which is given a speed of around warp 9.9996. Unless the Stargazer is able to hit speeds higher than warp 9.9996 there is no reason the Enterprises sensors shouldn't be quite able to track where the Stargazer was.

In short the Enterprise has sensors that work at speeds far in excess of the ships top speed, and far greater than the warp eight the Stargazer managed. They had no reason not to use these sensors and the Enterprise wasn't damaged in anyway so they must have been working.

Am I the only person who's ever worked this out?

At this point in the series the Enterprise can manage warp 9.6 as a cruising speed, and manage to reach warp 9.9 with an effort.
IIRC only Voyager was stated to be capable of that cruising speed. I don't recall the Enterprise ever being said to be that fast (except for the Warp 13 comment in the final episode.)

Am I the only person who's ever worked this out?
I think I commented on the sensors before, but you put a lot more effort into the math.

Hmm, couldn't find me commenting on it on this board, so maybe Phil mentioned it in his book? I know I did think about it though.

"At this point in the series the Enterprise can manage warp 9.6 as a cruising speed, and manage to reach warp 9.9 with an effort.
IIRC only Voyager was stated to be capable of that cruising speed. I don't recall the Enterprise ever being said to be that fast (except for the Warp 13 comment in the final episode.)"

Voyagers top cruising speed was given as warp 9.975 in Caretaker. Enterprises top cruising speed was, during encounter at Farpoint, given as warp 9.5 but the ship did manage warp 9.8 when she was running from Q. The figure of warp 9.6 as top cruising speed is given as a standard in the technical guide for TNG, as well as being mentioned in a few episodes.
The Enterprises top speed is one of those areas than remained constant throughout the series after the pilot, and the minor difference between the pilot and later shows can easily be explained since the Enterprise in the pilot is a new ship and the crew hasn't yet figured out how to make everything work to its full potential yet.

"Hmm, couldn't find me commenting on it on this board, so maybe Phil mentioned it in his book? I know I did think about it though."

I had all the books, although owing to events outside my control I no longer have them The maths I worked out was done while reading the book, in fact I wrote down a list of nits Phil (and others) had missed. This was one of them.

Daimon Bok said he was a wealthy man, and it took his entire fortune to acquire the two mind control globes.
Word of advice: save alot more money and just buy a phaser to kill Picard. Elliminate your son's killer and keep your money-- win-win situation.

Why was Picard getting headaches before he brought aboard the mind control sphere? Was Bok transmitting the Captain's brain wave pattern beam at him all that time from the Ferengi ship?

Why is Picard, or even Riker, allowing the Ferengi ship to fly alongside them after they've handed over the Stargazer for free? The deal is done, so shouldn't they be saying, "Thanks. You can leave now, Bok." ?

The writers sure seemed to think that our good old fashioned down home 20th century medicine would be archaic in the 24th century. This season Crusher shrugs off headaches as something that shouldn't happen, and season 2 Pulaski has to berate a med tech for questioning what a sling is.
I just think some things will be around a long time, and not cured or outdated by the 24th century.

Daimon Bok must have hornswaggled his men into thinking they'd get a profit with returning the Stargazer to her ex-captain, then changing his mind on them. I think the ship would have netted an exceptionally-high profit had it been sold to the Romulans or Klingons or Breen or someone else to use and study Federation technology, or even to other Ferengi to melt down and sell for scrap and valuable personal items and valauables left behind when Picard abandoned ship.

This was my least-enjoyed episode of season 1-- just too much like Lost In Space science/revenge. Irwin Allen would have been proud!

From upthread: "Also when Riker is talking to the Ferengi first officer, they both refer to Bok as captain. Riker could slip up I guess but surely this Ferengi would only call him Daimon, given that is how is referred to for the rest of the episode by the Ferengi."

This raises the question: If Daimon means Captain, why doesn't the UT translate it as Captain?

The Picard Maneuver doesn't seem that complicated. It's hard to believe that Starfleet had been around for 200 years without anyone ever thinking of it before Picard.

The Picard Maneuver doesn't seem that complicated.
How hard can it be, to pull down your shirt when you first stand up? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Ha. Of course, I was actually referring to the facepalm.

Hans Thielman on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 12:56 pm: Other then being court-martialed, what exactly did Picard do between commanding the Stargazer and assuming command of the Enterprise D?
He most likely took a period of leave, followed by a number of shore assignements.

Keith Alan Morgan on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 08:17 am: So why would an Acting Ensign be allowed to play around with the long range sensors?
Most likely part of his on-the-job training.

Bok is using a "Thought Maker" on Picard. To be effective this device must be broadcasting at or around the wavelengths of Picard's thoughts. If a machine can be developed to transmit on the frequency of thoughts it would be even easier to build a device to block the transmission of thoughts. Therefore Data will be incorrect in Night Terrors when he states that there is no known technology for blocking telepathy.
The technology Bok used was illegal, so any other examples, as well as any derived technology, would have been banned.

Will on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 10:25 am: The Stargazer looks like it's been in a fight, but not enough to abandon ship. The Constellation from TOS looked much worse off.
As stated elsewhere, such as entry tv3008 on the Movie Mistakes website, a lot of the minor damage was repaired by the Ferengi after they found the ship.

Rob Hoskins on Saturday, October 12, 2002 - 1:13 pm: How come the Counselor Troi can all of a sudden: "Sence considerable deception on Bok's part...and danger". Whats up with that, just before that in "The Last Outpost" Deanna couldn't get anything from the Ferengi at all.
She's probably making an educated guess.

steve McKinnon (Steve) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 8:31 am: Daimon Bok said he was a wealthy man, and it took his entire fortune to acquire the two mind control globes. Word of advice: save alot more money and just buy a phaser to kill Picard. Elliminate your son's killer and keep your money-- win-win situation.
No it isn't - to get away with it, he would have to destroy the Enterprise, while ensuring no one can escape, so there aren't any witnesses who can report him to Starfleet for murder.

I have explanations for other errors on http://explaining-errors-in-star-trek.wikia.com/wiki/The_Battle

The technology Bok used was illegal, so any other examples, as well as any derived technology, would have been banned.
1. That's like saying "Since it's illegal to kill a cop, bullet-resistant vests must be banned."
2. Even illegal technology is KNOWN technology.

In fact, the technology being illegal would be a very good reason for it being so expensive.